Berlin

Freitag, 29. März 2013

Marina Abramovic is a perfomance artist. She was born in 1946 in Belgrad, a daughter of partisans in the army of Tito. She was raised to be like a soldier. Her mother never hugged or kissed her in order not to spoil her. Her performances often put her body in the center and are shocking, because they come so close and/or they put the audience in a position to participate, to cross borders. In her performance Rythm 10 she plays with knives and actually hurts herself. In her performance Rythm 0 she gave among others a gun and a bullet to the audience. 6 hours long, the audience could please, torture, ignore her, they were free to use the different objects on her. In the end she was naked and full of blood. Interesting how fast a crowd of people can turn into a mob. For me this is what Abramovic among other things wanted to show with this performance. "She is directly and boldly challenging the audience." In a way she challenges peoples very optimistic view on themselves.

The Artist is Present is a performance she made during her MoMA retrospective with the same title. It was like destiny, she said, that she would have to do this performance. She knew it right away after Klaus Biesenbach told her the name of the retrospective. The Artist is Present was in the beginning just thought as the claiming of the pure fact that a performance artist is present. Without him, no performance. But Marina Abramovic, maybe the most radical artist right now, took this literally and decided to be present for the entire time the exhibition would be open. For three months, for 721 hours she sat in the atrium of the museum on a simple chair, across from her was another chair, and visitors could come and sit across from her, and they indeed did come.When the exhebition came to its end people would just spend all night in front of the MoMA hoping to get a number and thus the chance to sit across from her. Abramovic did rarely move, she just looked every visitor in the eyes. Clear and open. Did you ever try to sit motionless for, say 10 minutes? Did you ever try to sit motionless and have other people sit across from you, looking into your eyes and not look away but let everything pass between you and the other person, complete openness?
I was very impressed by her courage. For many years now I am interested in buddhism, I meditate, I am intrigued by the idea to find stillness, quietude (btw if you watch any piece about the performance you will instantly hear how loud it was inside the MoMA and she was an island of concentration and stillness). Watching Marina Abramovic, she reminded me of great buddhist masters, who become totally empty thus being a perfect blank space for everybody elses projections. She says it at one point in the movie, that it was not about her but that people saw their own projections in her face. I think this is true. "She slows everybodys brain down."
I asked myself: "Could I do this?" and the answer is, I am not even sure I would have had the courage to go and sit across from her at MoMA. I would have loved though to be there, the entire three months, in this charismatic space she created and kept alive despite her exhaustion, despite her pain, (my knees and back start aching when I sit for 15 minutes on my meditation cushion, just the idea of sitting still for 7 hours is unthinkable and yet, of course it holds some magnetic fascination) I would have been one of the girls sitting cross-legged, all day, every day, absorbing the whole situation. Watching the movie I thought: "Would it not truly be enough to be just still for the rest of my life? Would that not catch everything our human existence could possibly be about?

Just as a funny sidenote: Fox News has a small appearance in the movie, :-) one of my favourites!!!

Freitag, 22. März 2013

Today was the day where I dived into inspirational women artists lifes and works, by accident really. Going through posts on Facebook and finding exactly the right counterparts for my mood, for my longing, for my open questions.
This interview with Marina Abramovic is fantastic. She is soooo smart and exceptional. I can not wait to see her movie The Artist is present. I do not know if any of you saw the part, where her former lover and partner Ulay came to the MoMa. She did not know he was coming. Please watch it! It will touch you. She is so amazing, so present, so open and vulnerable. A true artist. A true creator. I understood, that you can only be an artist, a creator in what ever art or field, if you dare being this open and vulnerable. Everything else is a concept.
My day of amazing women! I feel truly inspired and nourished. Thank you Marina Abramovic and Agnes Martin.

The painter Agnes Martin would have been 101 years old today. The interview with her is really inspiring and speaks deeply to everything I believe, to everything I think about.
She lived like a buddhist nun or a mystic in the desert of New Mexico and tried to reduce her live, her art, herself to the essence of life, of being. A mystic and a great artist. In may a new book about her will come out. It was supposed to come out last march, celebrating her 100th birthday. So I hope it will come out in may! I think I might get it.
Another book of writings by her Agnes Martin: Writings/Schriften is unfortunately out of print and if you try to get it second hand, say on Amazon, it will cost you several hundred euros. Wow! Couldn't they just reprint it? I am sure it is a good book! Hello publishers, I am sure you could make some money with it!
I wanna read it. Does anybody have it and would borrow it to me?

Donnerstag, 7. März 2013

This is the english version, not an exact translation, of a former german post called "Advice to myself". (Please excuse my bad english and I am sure, the zillions of punctuation errors. I swear I will try and find a class to take in it!!!) I read an interesting post by Rachel Papers, that made me remember the german text and so the strong urge to write about it again and in English overcame me. There is also the great film Lost in Living by Mary Trunk, that is strongly related to the subject matter. I wrote about it here.Please everybody who is a creative mom, I am very interested in your experiences and thoughts and everything!

A few months ago, I posted a poem by Louise Erdrich on my Facebook page. It was called: Advice to myselfI exactly recall that morning and the feeling, that it was the perfect poem for me. (By the way it was the poem of the day at Garrisons Keillor's Writer's Almanac . If you subscribe they will send you a fresh poem every morning. Not every morning they will send the perfect poem, but some mornings they will.)

Leave the dishes.Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.Don't even sew on a button.Let the wind have its way, then the earththat invades as dust and then the deadfoaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzlesor the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worrywho uses whose toothbrush or if anythingmatches, at all.Except one word to another.Or a thought.Pursue the authentic-decide firstwhat is authentic,then go after it with all your heart.Your heart, that placeyou don't even think of cleaning out.That closet stuffed with savage mementos.Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teethor worry if we're all eating cereal for dinneragain. Don't answer the telephone, ever,or weep over anything at all that breaks.Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartonsin the refrigerator.Accept new forms of life and talk to the deadwho drift in though the screened windows, who collectpatiently on the tops of food jars and books.Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anythingexcept what destroysthe insulation between yourself and your experienceor what pulls down or what strikes at or what shattersthis ruse you call necessity.

Montag, 4. März 2013

This is a list of all the movies (well almost all the movies) I have seen in my life meaning something to me. I still believe they are all among the best movies ever made! So go, get, watch and enjoy them!!!
I do not give any guarantee for this list being complete. I might add the one or other movie from time to time since I am still watching a lot whenever I get a chance and also, my memory might give me back some I have forgotten right now.
I am always interested in good movies, so tell me what you like to watch!

Whats eating Gilbert Grape One of the best perfomances of Leonardo di Caprio and Jonny Depp I have ever seen. Not to forget the absolutely brilliant Juliette Lewis. She was also in:

Kalifornia which is one of my favourite thrillers (and I hate thrillers ususally) but this one is wonderful. Brad Pitt as, well, psycho. Very convincing!

Thelma & Louise Talking about Brad Pitt, but even better Harvey Keitel, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, who was in another favourite film of mine:

Smoke that got also Harvey Keitel in it again. And here comes one of the very best movies ever with him:

The Piano that also got one of my favourite actresses in it: Holly Hunter! She won an Oscar for this and I think her dress was just smashing.

Miss Firecracker also with Holly Hunter will always remind me of all the times I went to see movies with my friend Anne-Marie in Richmond/Virginia. We would go every weekend and we sometimes saw three movies in a row. Fabulous!

Dead Man Walking with some of my favourite actors: Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon and one of the most moving movies I've seen so far.

Just like: The Deer Hunter with Robert de Niro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken. Just so you all know why I love Robert de Niro listen to this speech by Meryl Streep about him. I could put all of his movies in here. And all of Mery Streeps as well. This one is brilliant, I always loved it:

Heat with also Al Pacino staring. Just the duell between those wonderful actors is worth watching it several times, which I did.

Another very good, very male movie Shawshank Redemption. I loved its humour, the lightness with which it finally found its resolution. A real redemption!

My most recent favourite movie Die Frau die singt. It is set in the Lebanon and a very touching and deep story. I actually wrote a poem about it.

My favourite movie from last year, 2012, was Barbara a story about a woman who wanted to leave the german democratic republic and was therefore punished. Very deep and beautiful acting by Nina Hoss, one of my favourite actresses. She definitely should win an Oscar :-)

and also Manhattan has to be on it. Those two might be my favourites by him.

Pulp Fiction I mean I dont think I have to say anything about this movie, right? It is one of my alltime favourites, it got Bruce Willis in it, whom I only like because of Tilman Rammstedt, but also Harvey Keitel, Uma Thurman!!!, Christopher Walken and it is by Quentin Tarantino, whom I really like! And do not forget the soundtrack! and the dancescenes! and the brain scattered around the car!

Die fabelhafte Welt der Amelie is a fabulous french movie about love and magic with a beautiful soundtrack to which Lilly and I have been dancing forever, whenever we are in the kitchen.

As good as it gets I think I saw this movie at least five times. The last time was in the air between London and Johannesburg and it helped me immensely to forget my fear of flying. It is a movie about love and acceptance and craziness and the acting is superb. Helen Hunt!! Jack Nicholson!!

And if we are at Jack Nicholson, we have to mention this one as well. Something's gotta give. It has Diane Keaton in it who is a favourite of mine as well, ever since Annie Hall.

The Hours is a masterpiece for me with masteractresses: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore. I already loved the book and this is one rare case where I love both, book and movie alike.

Fargo is a really good movie with a masteractress again: Frances McDormand who was also in Cheyenne This must be the Place. She won the Oscar for Fargo. Her acceptance speech was beautiful.

Nader und Simin was a wonderful iranian movie which was shown at the Berlin Film Festival two years ago. It is such a deep psychological and political tale. It teaches us a lot about life in Iran. The two actors won the silver bear for their acting. It was one of the very best movies I saw in 2011.

Lost in Translation I am not sure I mentioned how much I like Bill Murray. But I do! He is among the greatest!

Missing are my favourite movies from 2013, which I will mention in my soon to be expected post about all the favourite things I saw, did and read in 2013. If you are bored until then, you might wanna check out my list of favourites from 2012. Movies are mentioned there I have not mentioned here!

Missing is also Moonstruck, which definitely has to be in a list like this. So from now on its 31 movies

here is another one I am watching right now Blue Sky which I totally forgot and should definitely be on every liste, with Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Lange in it, so it is 32 and still counting...

I have to put some movies on here now and then: I saw Amour, it's a movie, that makes you cry and still: its one of the best movies I ever saw about love and death

I also saw Hannah Arendt, a wonderful movie about the life of one of last century's greatest thinkers. I had to see it, because the actress Barbara Sukowa is in my opinion one of the best actresses we have in Germany, and the director Margarethe von Trotta has always been one of my favourites. I saw her Die bleierne Zeit about the female RAF-terrorists really impressed me, when I was 17, 18 years old

August:Osage County wonderful film with great actors, telling a story, that is grand! Loved it!